As we arrive at the 3rd of our 12 days of Wine, we are channeling a little decadence.  When I spoke with Alex Neely about pairing the Libertine 2015 Dry Riesling here was his suggestion:

This holiday season pair the 2015 Riesling with pork tamales doused in your favorite hot sauce. The flowery aromatics and kiss of residual sugar in the wine provide the perfect compliment and balance to the dish. My wife’s family has been eating tamales every Christmas Eve as long as she can remember. Since we have been together it is a tradition we continue in our house and have even introduced to my Southern family, much to their delight.

Alex Neely, Owner/Winemaker Libertine Wines

I will admit to not being anywhere brave enough to try making my own tamales, and I knew that here in Vegas I would be able to find a place locally that had them, so I went on a search.  What I found was a local Mexican family owned restaurant that has become a Vegas staple for Tamales.  Doña Maria Tamales has been in Vegas since 1980.  They make great tamales and have a fresh tortilla maker in front of the kitchen which is fascinating to watch.

I did a bit of research on how Tamales came to be a Christmas dish and found a great piece “Tamales: A Christmas Tradition”

The decadence tie in

Tamales a special event food, created typically in large quantities and meant to be shared with friends and family, I found this to be reflected in the Libertine label with Bacchus, the God associated with Festivals.  The tie in continues when you realize Bacchus was also the god of agriculture and “Corn was a very important crop in Mesoamerica, with people believing that people were created from corn. Tamales, because they were wrapped in corn husks, became part of ritual offerings. ” (from Tamales: A Christmas Tradition)

2015 Libertine Dry Riesling

This wine comes from the LaVelle Vineyard in the Willamette Valley.  36 hours of skin contact and fermented outdoors for 5 months in neutral oak.  Alex aged them sur lie for a year and a half.  Unfiltered and unfined, it was lovely and decadent.

The Pairing

Normally you think of riesling and it’s bit of sweetness as calming spicy foods. Alex had suggested dousing the tamales in our favorite hot sauce.  I’m a little “white bread” on this one.  Michael doesn’t do “spicy” anymore, so we didn’t do the hot sauce,  and we actually found that the wine intensified the spicy notes in the tamales.

The wine had petrol on the nose and green apple.  It was tart and crisp on the palate and leaves your tongue a little buzzy!  While it increased the spiciness of the dish, the wine itself became sweeter on my palate when I paired it with the food.

We met Alex at a festival this past summer and you can see our interview with him here.